can some one teach me how to map edit

[generalmyers]

please teach me because i am a noob and well i want to know how to make maps

[apple23]

Ok... here we go...
BASICS:

Getting Started:
Simple map making is actually very easy. Start by oepning FinalAlert and making a new multiplayer map. You will start with a 50x50 stretch of grass/snow/pavement depending of the theater you have chosen (temperate for grass, snow for snow, and urban for pavement.) now you will see 8 little blue circles with green flags and numbers next to them. Theese are called waypoints, and the first 8 (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,and 7) define the starting positions. Either drag them or delete them and put them in another place of your choosing.

Terraforming:
The first step in customizing your map is changing the ground and the elevation. To do this, start by expanding the "ground" subtitle on the left panel and selecting the type of ground or water you want. Then simply point and click where you want to place that tile of ground. To change the brush size, find the pull down at the top toolbar labeled "brush size" and select the size you want. For more advanced ground types, select the "terrain/ground" pull down menu at the bottom of the screen. To change elevation, find the "raise/lower elevation button at the top toolbar and click where you want to change the elevation. Note that there is a limit to how high or low you can go.

Placing Ore:
Every map needs ore and gems, so every mapmaker needs to know how to place it. Start by going to the "special/overlay" subtitle in the left panel, select "Ore/Gems", then select "paint ore" or "paint gems" and place it in the same way you did with the ground. Note that you cannot place ore on certain types of ground, and also note the counter at the top right of the screen that tells you how much money in ore and gems is on the map.

Placing Objects:
The final step in basic mapmaking is to place any objects that you want on the map before the game starts. Note that theese objects can only be owned by the civilians unless you use triggers, which are for more advanced mapmakers.
To place an object , select the "buildings", "infantry", "vehicles", or "aircraft" subtitle, select the object you want to place, and point and click where you want to place it. simple as that.

Once you have the basics down you can start experimenting with the other tools, like cliffs, waypoints, triggers, and stuff like that. But for now, i hope this little manual helps ^^
If you have any more questions, just ask me or any of the other people in the editing community. Have fun!

[Statalyzer]

A few more tips:

Make you know beforehand how many players you're map will support and ONLY use those start flags. Example: 4 player map, only use flags 0, 1, 2, & 3 and don't even place the others.

If you want to make cliffs, you'll need to turn off individual tiles a lot to raise the terrain up. Notice that all the cliff pieces have a reddish-purple line on the terrain on the top? Make sure these all connect to form one long line at the edge of the cliff, including those 4 "corner" cliff pieces that just have one small dot that connects the lines from two pieces that appear to meet diagonally, but don't quite touch.

Be a bit creative. Don't make a map that puts each player stop of a cliff, almost surrounded by water, and walled off, with tons of gems on the inside. Both players will build up massive forces and be unable to attack b/c the other can defend so easily. Don't spam tech buildings all over. Don't just put players on either end of the map and all the money and derricks in the middle.

Spread things out, make so the entire map is necessary for success, and so that controlling one key point early on isn't an auto-win. It's also good to have alternate routes from place to point so a player can't just camp his forces in one spot, but has to make choices of how to manuever.

[Fenring]

Also, use the Marble Madness grid mode. It's extremely helpful for weeding out cliff and tiling errors.